Filed under: PUBLISHED WORK
Arts Hub Australia, 23rd July 2008
Detractors of the cinematic long take may have been limbering their lungs in preparation for post-curtain huffing and puffing at the South Melbourne Town Hall on Friday night. They needn’t have bothered; for one thing, there was no curtain.
Claudio Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea), is the sobering yet playful treatment of the events preceding the acsension to the throne of Poppaea Sabina, second wife of Roman Emperor Nero. Though staged by Victorian Opera unabridged and in mean tone – replicating insofar as was musically possible the opera’s 1643 Venice premiere – this production was by no means a period affair.
Unbroken tracts of recitative might stultify an audience for whom the exchanges are not musically well supported. Richard Gill was in characteristic fine form, delivering a brief explanation of the potentially face-contorting requirements of pitch before settling at one of two harpsichords set either side of the stage to lead a very strong yet restrained – and for the most part quite young – ensemble in refined and sensitive accompaniment. The singers themselves took full advantage of Monteverdi’s melodic mood cues and Gianni Francesco Busenello’s ironically charged libretto to create an entirely engaging atmosphere of desire, ambition, intrigue and, as we and Poppea’s inaugural audience all smugly knew, folly.
Director Kate Cherry mentions having been struck by the parallels between the trajectory of Poppaea – whose violent demise at the hands (or rather foot, if one adheres to popular legend) of Nero swiftly followed her apparent victory – and the present “cult of celebrity, worship of the fabulously wealthy, spoilt princesses rewarded for their excesses and their narcissism”. Cherry terminates this reflection in the observation that “virtue seemed to have gone underground.”
Indeed Monteverdi’s own cloaked criticism of his contemporaries sees La Virtù, along with La Fortuna, capitulate to the rather less scrupulous Amore, intent on demonstrating her dominance over them through the supplantation of Poppea as Empress. Contrary to the popular formula, the good and virtuous are cast out in one manner or another while the ruthless triumph. The framework of this retelling was dependent upon the audience’s awareness of the events that were to follow: the ultimate vindication of virtue once ambition had cannibalised itself.
Richard Roberts’ neutral, unobtrusive set provided an ideal foundation for the timeless exposition of Monteverdi and Busenello’s subtle and enduring critique of power and ambition. The minimalism of the backdrop also allowed John Buswell’s simple yet dramatic lighting to work to full effect, highlighting the plight of the majority of characters – and in particular the unfortunate Empress Ottavia – under cold white light, while Poppea and Nerone are gilded in a hue that is further enhanced by Poppea’s ubiquitous deep red gown.
Costumes are simple and while not prescriptive, colour quietly works on audience perceptions of each character: both Poppea and her nurse Arnalta are clothed throughout in rich red, each intent on fulfilling their deluded ambitions of love and status yet oblivious to the inextricable violence of that fulfilment. Ottavia and Drusilla, martyrs to their own devotion, remain pushed into their respective fates, dressed in sombre purple. Nerone and his company, including Paul Hughes’ majestic, seditious Seneca, skulk about the stage in an array of vaguely mafiosi-worthy black garb, while La Fortuna, La Virtù and L’Amore appear in suitably ethereal pastels.
The restraints of style and space were deftly handled by the entire ensemble, each of whose members gave powerful performances while deferring sufficiently to the inherent strength of the music and libretto.
The golden couple of Nerone and Poppea was especially well filled out by countertenor David Hansen and soprano Tiffany Speight. Though Hansen’s virtuosity occasionally overpowered the musical context, his flexibility within an appropriate range was well demonstrated as the performance progressed. Speight’s light but rounded voice carried Poppea fluidly through a role to which an audience could easily turn unsympathetic. Together, their onstage presence was suitably impassioned, provoking a frequency of spectator collar adjustment unusual for a 350-year-old work.
Sally Wilson, Jacob Caine and Elizabeth Campbell also shone in smaller roles, the latter infusing the characters of Arnalta and Seneca’s friend with humour, colour and pathos.
A season of The Coronation of Poppea is relatively rare, and Victorian Opera’s sensitive treatment and fine delivery of original material makes this production all the more so.
18, 20, 22, 24 & 26 July | Claudio Monteverdi / Giovanni Busenello
South Melbourne Town Hall, Australian National Academy of Music
